Greetings from the Garden!

Here's to spring showers- March saw us posting a rainfall total of over eight inches.  Many of our student scientists were astounded to see our rainfall gauge in the garden register over 5 inches in the space of just a week.  Our plants have soaked it up though.  Our fruit trees are sending out tentative green leaves and many of our herbs are reemerging from dormancy with verdant new growth. 

It is an exciting time to be a gardener.  In my family those of us who suffer from the gardening bug start to twitch and mumble to ourselves as the days grow longer and warmer.  Spring is afoot and there is much to be done.  I have been known to wander about in the garden after dark with my headlight on searching for the multi-legged invaders who viciously mowed down my seedlings.  I am also given to compulsive list making because there is so much that needs to happen such as planting potatoes, building nesting boxes, or adding compost to the soil. 

I can't tell all of you how happy I am to be seeing the signs of spring madness in many of our student farmers at lunch time.  Some of the signs are as follows:

1.  Using rulers to measure your seedling growth

2.  Having a sore pointer finger from using a spray bottle on aphids (real or make believe)

3.  Making daily check-ins on plants just to ensure everything is doing okay

4.  Creating elaborate twine creations to hold peas in place

5.  Adding straw as mulch one day and then removing it the next because you want everything to be just PERFECT

6.  Muttering at insects that might be threating your plants

We are all having a great time.  I am not sure how much we will have to sell at our first Farmers Market at the end of this month, but we are sure learning a lot.  Over the past two weeks, the student farmers and I have had some really profound conversations about advertising.

So, what else happened last month you ask?  We got our baby apple trees planted in pots (we lovingly refer to them as sticks.)  We FINALLY got the four planter boxes up top ready for classes to use.  1st graders have explored the wind by pretending to be trees and 2nd graders have questioned whether or not seeds are actually alive. 

We have also had a huge outpouring of support for the garden this month.  Many folks from the larger El Cerrito and Richmond communities have donated plants both for our garden and for our class on Edible Perennials this month.  The City of El Cerrito has promised us free mulch and a number of local nurseries and horticulture programs have given us discounts or free items.  Thanks everyone!